Missing entries in the civil marriage index for ABBOTT 1839

[clontarf]

Well ... I took a punt, and ordered the 1840 birth certificate for Eliza Abbott registered in Shoreditch - and it is indeed her!  She is illegitimate and her mother's maiden name is Wood.

Born: 19 Apr 1840 (baptism record says 29th) at 47 [Moneyew??] Street Hoxton New Town
Father: Jabez Abbott
Mother: Eliza Wood
Rank or Profession of Father: Farmer
Informant: Eliza Wood, mother, (24) [47 Moneyew Street (crossed out)] Woods Stables Colchester Street Whitechapel
When registered: 18 May 1840 (the day after the baptism)
In the right margin are words "Twenty" and a chopped off word above the signature of the registrar - a correction to the birth date perhaps?

I can no longer assume she died in infancy - in fact, I have a potential record in the 1841 census for her and her mother; but I now dont need to continue the search for a potential marriage for Jabez Abbott.

This is the first civil birth certificate I have seen for an illegitimate child.  The index search result is misleading.  Whether or not the parents are married, Wood is still the mother's maiden name.

[avm228]

That’s great news

You are right about the danger of inferring too much from an index entry without seeing the full certificate.  There’s a good explanation of the inconsistent treatment of illegitimate births by registrars in the early years of civil registration here (see under Column 4):

www.dixons.clara.co.uk/Certificates/births.htm

[clontarf]

I have now answered or rendered irrelevant my original query, so I will declare this COMPLETED.

Thank you all for your input. 

[Annette7]

Good news, Clontarf!   Just so you (and others reading this thread) know I contacted FreeBMD re. the 'A' surnames for Marriages March qtr. 1839 beginning with Abercromby - pages headed ABE-ADD - and that with at least 2 common surnames before 'Abercromby' i.e. Abbey and Abbott, it seemed extremely odd.

They replied and agreed it would seem logical but confirmed that when they did the transcriptions ABE-ADD were the first pages under 'A' and that although not visible when you look at the original page they are shown as pages 1 and 2.   They suggested I contact the GRO direct which I duly did.

GRO acknowledged my email and will contact me in due course after investigation.   It's possible there was an omission made when GRO changed from handwritten to typed lists - if that should turn out to be the case one can only hope that they still have copies of the hand-written lists.   If there were earlier entries missing hopefully this error will be corrected.

Will let you know how GRO respond (although I do appreciate that you no longer are after a marriage for said Jabez Abbott).   If there were omissions (and I feel there has to be) then thanks would go to you for highlighting the matter.

Annette

[clontarf]

Thank you Annette for that initiative.  I will be extremely interested to see what the GRO's response is.